Donald Trump

That’s Rush Limbaugh this morning, giving a nice shout out to my post yesterday on “The Machiavellian Trump.” Here’s a bit of the transcript: So last night I got an email from a buddy who had an observation, and I had been thinking about it, too, but it was not in the front of my mind, the top of my mind consciousness. But it’s a random thought that I’d had »

As Steve noted earlier, Donald Trump met today with Al Gore to talk about climate change: Former Vice President Al Gore said Monday he had a “productive” meeting with Donald Trump, calling it “an extremely interesting conversation.” Gore, a leading voice on the dangers of climate change, met with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York City and spoke briefly to reporters afterward. He categorized the meeting as a »

What is Trump up to? News item: Trump’s most vocal loyalists during the campaign, Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Guiliani, have been completely passed over for senior positions. (In Christie’s case, he was publicly humiliated and defenestrated.) News item: Trump meets twice with Mitt Romney, dangling the position of secretary of state to one of his most severe critics in the GOP nomination battle. News item: Trump meets today »

Yesterday, I wrote about what appears to be Donald Trump’s first foreign policy call — a telephone conversation with the Taiwanese president that signals to China the possibility of closer relations between the U.S. and Taiwan. I argued that this was a good call. I take the deal Trump worked out with Carrier to keep about 1,000 jobs in the U.S. to be the president-elect’s first economic policy call. How »

In the run-up to this year’s election, when I thought Hillary Clinton would win, I speculated about what a post-Trump GOP would look like. It seemed to me that the Party might settle on a synthesis that mixed two doses of traditional conservatism with one dose of Trumpianism. Based on Trump’s early moves, especially his appointments, it looks like this might be the formula. Except I’m not sure about the »

The freakout over Donald Trump’s alleged love affair with Vladimir Putin may or may not have a firm basis in reality. But to the extent that it’s Democrats who are freaking out, I can’t help but note their hypocrisy. It was President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton who gave us the Russian reset, one consequence of which was to deny Poland and the Czech Republic a missile shield. It »

Ammo Grrrll notes that they are at it AGAIN WITH THE NAZIS! She writes: In May of 1970 I had helped organize a very large antiwar rally at the University of Minnesota to plan an even larger march to the State Capitol protesting the invasion of Cambodia and the killing of four Kent State students. Suddenly, a crazed-looking fellow rushed the stage and took over the microphone. Nobody on campus »

Jon Chenette is the interim president of Vassar College. He is a little late getting in on the freakout act in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president. He takes the occasion of Thanksgiving to make up for his tardiness. He treats the operative shibboleths and cliches as so much stuffing for this particular turkey. I thought that readers who have followed this series so far might find President »

Donald Trump cracked the Democrats’ “blue wall” by narrowly winning Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He accomplished this by attracting non-upscale white voters. He also took advantage, it seems, of lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton among black voters in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Has Trump thereby transformed the electoral landscape? The answer probably depends on the extent to which his policies improve, or will be perceived as »

Donald Trump has selected Michael Flynn to be his national security adviser. The selection is a natural one. Flynn was Trump’s go-to guy on national security matters during the campaign. The retired Lt. General is already under attack on a number of fronts, both personal and substantive. The focus should be on substance. I don’t know Flynn’s views on the full range of national security related topics. I agree with »

A pro-Trump student was beaten yesterday during an anti-Trump march held by students from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, about half an hour from where I live. The march occurred during school hours. The victim, who wore a “Make America Great Again” cap, argued with one of the protesters. Pretty soon, according to a witness, he was “jumped,” and found himself being punched and kicked by the disputant »

The media is in full cry that Trump’s transition is in complete chaos and “disarray.” More proof, it is supposed, that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, and is in over his head. Hmm. Seems to me we’ve heard this kind of thing before. Oh yeah, this is what the media screamed about Ronald Reagan, who departed for his Santa Barbara ranch right after the 1980 election, to the horror »

While Democrats around the country try to “process” what happened last week, wily Chuck Schumer is planning what will happen next year. The soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader announced that, unlike Republicans during the Obama years, the Democrats won’t reflexively oppose whatever the president proposes. Instead, they will consider each proposal on its merits and work with President Trump when they consider his proposals meritorious. Schumer isn’t just saying this to »

Watching excerpts from various anti-Trump demonstrations, I saw this sign: “Your vote was a hate crime.” “Hate crime” is not a figure of speech. The concept has made it into the criminal law, and would be more prevalent there if the left had its way. Thus, those who view a vote for Trump as a hate crime must want to criminalize voting for a candidate whose views offend them greatly. »

Speculation swirls as to whom Donald Trump will appoint to his Cabinet. Will Rudy Giuliani be Secretary of State? Will Jeff Sessions be Secretary of Defense or maybe Attorney General? (The latter job seems ideal for him). Meanwhile, Trump has made two key appointments that don’t require Senate confirmation. Reince Priebus will be chief of staff and Steve Bannon will be chief strategist and senior counselor. The Priebus appointment carries »

Fred Fleitz of the Center for Security Policy is an expert on, and leading critic of, the Iran nuclear deal. He followed the Iranian nuclear issue for the CIA, the State Department, and the House Intelligence Committee. In this column for NRO, Fleitz predicts that Donald Trump will fix the Iran deal or else kill it. He cites a statement by Walid Phares, a senior national-security adviser to Trump, that »

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president will, I hope, be to nominate a conservative to fill the vacancy left by Justice Scalia. I don’t doubt that Trump will pick a conservative, most likely someone from his lists. I’m also confident that the Senate will confirm Trump’s pick. If 60 votes aren’t to be had, the Senate likely will abolish the filibuster, as the Democrats did for lower court »